To the Psychic, Nothing Is Really Ever Hidden

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Many years ago, in the late fifties, while listening to seekers unfold from their subconscious deep-rooted problems created from unfulfilled desires and not-so-happy experiences, I began to see pictures form in the deep inner aura of their astral body. These patterns, or vasanas, were portrayed in complex arrangements of several colors. The inner aura, I discovered, is imbedded within the chest and torso. This experience was most amazing when it first began to happen, but it wasn't long before it was easy to understand exactly how each color related to a deep-seated emotional memory pattern. Looking like "modern art," the colors interrelated with the seeker's emotional experiences, stress pressures, repressions and reactionary conditions built up over the years. As time went on, this siddhi was perfected.

A negative reactionary condition lodged in this sub-subconscious, inner aura is seen as shades of deep, heavy gray, or brownish, greenish black. This would appear in the torso of the body from the neck down to the waist. A happy experience is seen as blue, yellow, pink and all the lighter hues. By observing auras time and time again, while listening to many hundreds of devotees tell their subconscious stories, all through the sixties, the accuracy was astounding. By simply looking at their inner aura, it became easier and easier to know almost at a glance what was going to be said next--not the very words, but the nature of the condition that was to be unfolded. I later found that when a negative condition cleared, the spiritual pranas lightened the colors to almost a brilliancy, and the seeker was lifted into a beautiful, high state of contemplation. Some even experienced the clear white light for the first time, and others saw their entire body filled with light. This only happened when the darker shades of color were dissolved from the sub of the subconscious state of mind, the home of deep-seated impressions of past experience. This means that some of the emotion was lifted from the experience. They usually remained in a high state of consciousness until they started to react to having told me their story, then began to relive the problems and recreate some of the darker colors, clouding the white light and returning to the mental-emotional state where they started.

In the beginning years of yoga in America, in the middle of this century, this occurred more than often: a yoga student would reach the clear white light through clearing sub-subconscious conditions, then recreate the subconscious congestion over and over again. Why did this happen? Because of wrong knowledge--no understanding of karma, knowing little about dharma and the other basics of Hinduism.

Seeing that a seeker's inner aura was holding a darker color, a deep blue or reddish black, would prompt my question: "What do you have on your mind?" They would say, "Nothing." I would say, "Oh, you have something on your mind. What is it?" They would say, "Not a thing." Soon the dark, congested area would slowly begin to move up from the solar plexus into the chest. I would then say, "There must be something on your mind that you are remembering that bothered you when you were about twelve years old, or fourteen or sixteen." They would say, "I can't think of a thing." But when the dark congestion reached the throat area, automatically they would start talking. The problem would pop right into their conscious mind, and they would tell everything about the situation until the dark congestion slowly changed into a bright yellow. At this point, you would notice they had a preliminary understanding of the experience to which they had been reacting.

In studying color we find that the emotion of jealousy bursts forth blackish green. The emotion of fear gives forth many shades of gray. Deeply congested states give forth black, indicating depression and the desire for security. Brown indicates the magnetic, pranic forces of nature. A deep desire of greed would produce brown. Deep blue indicates religious devotion without knowledge, something like blind faith. Light blue indicates knowlegeable devotional practices. The color yellow indicates the richness of a purified intellectual knowing. Purple indicates bringing spiritual teachings down through the intellect and expounding them on the physical plane, whereas lavender is indicative of the higher spiritual teachings held inside on the higher mental plane. Pink is refined emotion and creates a devotional atmosphere, and orange is the color of activity created by desire to serve selflessly. Blackish red on the other hand indicates repressed lust and sensual desire.

The primary colors, red, blue and yellow, are the basic force colors of the great prism of life. Actinic, or spiritual, force hitting the most sensitive odic force fields blends these colors into myriad hues in the inner and outer aura. In the inner plane of consciousness, each color is separate and distinct within itself, even while intermingling, for colors stand alone just as sounds vibrate simultaneously in the same atmosphere in this plane of consciousness. Should one be able to see sound waves, they would register as an interplay of colors, each separate, with one flowing through the other at different rates of vibration.

Color and sounds interrelated bring down form, for the atomic structure of form, when broken down to its most refined aspect, equals sound. All aspects of color qualify themselves as emotions of people, not only instinctive, but intellectual and superconscious. These are registered in the atmospheric condition of the inner plane as various combinations of colors, shades and hues.

In a yoga gathering, a student once asked: "When you see colors inside of people, is this the aura?" No, this is not the outer aura, which extends three or four feet out from the physical body and is constantly changing. That inner aura portrays tense sub-subconscious tendencies, desires and reactionary conditions that have gone to seed and often do not change for years on end. The more changeable outer aura is affected by the static inner aura which profoundly influences a person's daily feelings and thoughts. The interplay between the two is an underlying force of human life.

When the third eye opens in this capacity, people begin to look like plastic images with colors streaming through them. Suppose, for example, a person became extremely upset over an unfair happening. The congested pranas remain vibrating in the inner aura until cleared. Such an experience could be brought again to the surface (the conscious mind), relived through conversation, and the congestion unleashed and dissipated through the outer auric field from the core of the inner aura itself.

Hindu seers of ancient times used the term vasana to name deep-seated subconscious traits or tendencies that shape one's belief's, attitudes and motivations. Vasanas can be positive or negative. One of the best methods for dissolving troublesome vasanas, is the practice of burning confessions, or even long letters to loved ones or acquaintances, describing pains, expressing confusions and registering complaints and long-held hurts. In Sanskrit, I call this the Vasana Daha Tantra, meaning "subconscious purification by fire." Writing down problems and burning them in any ordinary fire brings them from the subconscious into the external mind, releasing the supressed emotion as the fire consumes the paper. This is a magical healing process, and one of the few methods I have found for actually clearing up the inner aura.

Truly, we are progressing very well along the San Marga, the straight path to perfection. What is perfection? By perfection, we mean two things: first, strength of character--self control and experiencing life's adventures in love and understanding; and second, having a pure heart and love of God as the ever-giving life energy in all beings. We gain strength of character by understanding the unfailing law of karma--that nothing can happen to us, good, bad or mixed, but that we have set the pranas into motion that eventually manifest every experience. In understanding this divine law, we conquer hurt feelings, resentment, anger and all the uncomfortable emotions of life. Next, we accept the fact that all manifested life is in motion because of the pranas that have manifested into form and that those pranas are emanating right from the Godhead, every minute of every hour of every day. It is all that simple. But in today's complex world we sometimes lose sight of Sanatana Dharma's truths.

At times like these, when we stumble on the path, dark, troubled emotions add their dismal colors to our static inner aura. It is now time to stimulate heartfelt forgiveness and be diligent in daily sadhana. Once the problem is known, we can correct it!